The Divine Crash

This morning I was speaking with some other pastors in my area.  We were speaking about why we do what we do.  Why we are pastors.  While others mentioned calling, love, etc… I said

“I am simply trying to change the world.”  (more…)

Good morning! We continued to look at the gospel and where it is true in our daily life. Feel free to enjoy the audio at the bottom or on iTunes.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

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Dear Jesus, for all those pastors who are preaching this morning, may you give them words of truth, love, comfort, and courage.  May the pastors stand up and speak your name with boldness and a refusal to bow down to politics, hatred, and evil.  May those who sit in the seats be touched by your words.  May they be stirred to greater acts of grace and goodness than the world has ever seen before. – Amen

In Highschool God brought me to Karate to give me a place to channel some energy and learn some basic philosophies of life.  But then God needed me to focus on college so I gave up my karate.  Then after college God brought Karate back to me so that I could cope with my horrible job.  Then God called me to seminary which meant giving up karate.  Now, is God bringing me back to the dojo? It has been years.  Can I even go back?  Is God allowing me to have this back? Could this really be something God is bringing me back to?

My dream was to one day have a black belt, could that start now? Again?

Sometimes God gives us gifts and things to enjoy to make life more enjoyable at certain times in our lives.  And sometimes those seasons of our life end and we move on.  We grieve the loss but we must move on to where God has called us too.

Has God ever done that to you? Given you something wonderful and then called you to something else more wonderful but  it meant you had to give up your first gift. Leave a comment and tell me about it.

One of the things that I find to be absolutely astounding in full-time ministry is how many stupid comments people say to the pastor.  One woman today told me I had a “cushy” job.

Another person said I was only in it for the money and easy hours. One guy asked me “Do you have a work ethic to work more than one day a week?” The most recent one was “Where else could you work where you only have to wear a tie on Sundays?”

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1 Corinthians 13:1-8

We are continuing to look at what else is good news about the gospel?  What does it mean today, tomorrow, and in the future. I took a lot of this from Rob Bell’s book “Love Wins.” and some of it is from Peter Rollins’ book “Insurrection.”

Feel free to leave a comment, take a listen to the audio at the bottom or on iTunes.

Prayer: Let your love never fail

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Dear Jesus, by now the resolutions of last week have failed and we feel like a mess.  Be with us, remind us that it isn’t about what we resolve to do but what you have already done for us.  Give us strength to keep our promises to you and to love you beyond what we have done.  May you renew a right spirit within us. – Amen

We are well into 2012.  So now what? What will make 2012 different than 2011? How will you achieve your goals this year?

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